3D TV: the sets heading your way in 2010

But are we ready to upgrade our TVs already?

The TV companies who talked up 3D the most at this year's CES were: Samsung, LG, Panasonic, Sony and Toshiba.

Sony and Panasonic had already announced at IFA they were looking to 3D for the future, so they garnered little headline space because of this.

This is a shame, as Panasonic's VT25 series of 3D plasmas offer up the best picture quality we have seen for 3D, putting in a great case for plasma's future in the market.

Sony debuted its new Monolith-design LCD 3D TVs, the LX900 series, which looked great but its press conference didn't exactly impress.

Sony's CEO Howard Stringer did bring on US country singer Taylor Swift on stage to show off the company's 3D technology but, acting like the proverbial Kanye West, Samsung's announcement of the slimmest 3D TV on the market – the 9000 series – was way better, and this was all because the technology packed into its waif-like frame is jaw-droppingly stunning.

But, if it were all based on technology innovations, rather than money spent on booths and celebs, then Toshiba's Cell TV is a television on another level (tech and price-wise) of all its peers.

As it has been so long in the making, though, Toshiba felt if needed to push the television in another way and showcased the 3D benefits of the Cell TV at CES 2010, calling the technology inside it True 3D.

To market the TV just on its 3D abilities is doing it a disservice, considering the telly can manage 4K picture quality, record eight streams at once and has twice-as-bright LED technology, but this is the way the industry is inevitably going and to not follow suit would be commercial suicide.

Hence the reason that Sharp showed off some prototype 3D technology and JVC demoed its 3D LCD tech, which makes use of passive 3D. This means that the glasses are cheap but the images are cheaper.

And then there's poor old Mitsubishi, a company which has been peddling its 3D wares since 2007, and it did again at CES 2010 to small-ish crowds, proving that getting in early to 3D doesn't exactly put you in good steed for becoming a market leader.